Herb-wife
Gender: Female Species: Squirrel Place of Origin: Somewhere in the South Appearance: Very thin, bony, and cantankerous old female squirrel Seer and healer. Fur is silver-white, paler below - sometimes, she decorates this with phosphorescent green dyes in swirling patterns. Eyes are dark brown. Whiskers are scraggly and a bit droopy. Face is lined a bit with age. Claws are black. Wears a woven brown vest, long black skirt with a belt of seashells, and several pouches of seers paraphanalia attached to various strings about her person. Also wears several seashell and pebble necklaces, bracelets, and anklets, some of which also have small feathers in them. Has two gold hoop earrings that are somewhat large on her, one in each ear. Has a massive, far-too-large hooded pale green cloak trimmed with magpie feathers, which she only wears when actually fortunetelling. Welds a short scepter similar to a Leafwood, save the stone atop it is amber and not green. Also weilds a longbow and quiver of arrows when traveling. Personality: Solitary, and hermit-like. Very cantankerous and sometimes ill-tempered, but with a huge heart and a strong, innate sense of right and wrong. Has remarkably keen powers of observation. Backstory SPOILERS! If you haven't read LITTLE FLOWER you might not want to read this!!! Herb-wife's first origins and real name are unknown. So far as anybeast knows, she always lived a hermit's life in group of three strong oak trees hollowed out to make sort of an estate, in the woods just southeast of Southsward. She was a proficient healer and a great fortuneteller - she had no real ability to see into the future, but could notice and make accurate dedutions from the tiniest of details to where her predictions nearly always came out right. She used this ability to ward off vermin bands, by disguising herself so her species was not clear, and making frightening predictions. This usually worked, as most vermin are superstitious. Herb-wife's near neighbors for a time were the weasel Skrugg and her grandfather, who had left a vermin gang to try to learn to be goodbeasts. The squirrel was especially close to the young weaselmaiden, whom she could tell had a huge, freindly heart. When Skrugg's grandfather was killed and Skrugg's head beaten almost to a pulp by the robbers, in payback for desertion, Herb-wife tried her best to save Skrugg, even calling in the healers from the nearby Castle Floret. However, Skrugg never recovered mentally from the blows, becoming a savage, berserk creature who would torture and kill anybeast in her way. Herb-wife was the only one of the healers who survived Skrugg's attack; the heartbreak at the failure made her even more cantankerous and solitary than she had been before. When the abandoned weaselbabe Little Flower accidentally fell down Herb-wife's well, the old squirrel rescued her and took her in, wanting to redeem herself for her failure with Skrugg. She renamed the babe Zina, and began to rigerously teach her how to not only be a goodbeast and stay a goodbeast, but also how to be the best healer and fortuneteller she could be, until her apprentice had surpassed her in skills. She did not, however, tell Zina about her activities whenever vermin came about, locking the weaselmaiden in a safe place until the dangers were past. When The Destruction horde of cannabalistic vermin started to move inland from the Far South Coasts, Herb-wife took it upon herself to stop them. She sought out Captain Bagnose and his mate Virnta, whom she rightly noticed were stupid and suggestible. Also noticing from certain signs that Virnta was in the earliest stages of pregnancy, Herb-wife informed the pair of the fact and predicted that to continue to follow their cheiftain's orders would result in the death of the babe. She was ingnored, ridiculed, and laughed at, as the Destruction was a savage, brutal, and unimaginative horde who did not believe in superstition. However, later that season, her desperate gamble of a prediction actually came true when Virnta gave birth to a stillborn kit. A furious Bagnose sought out and slew Herb-wife, destroying her home. Category:Squirrels Category:ScottyBlue's Characters Category:Goodbeasts Category:Females Category:Little Flower Characters